


Dance With Me

by raidelle



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Gladio Rarepair Week, Requited Unrequited Love, Sort Of, Teen Angst, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-29 16:33:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17811518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raidelle/pseuds/raidelle
Summary: It's the annual Crown City High Girl-Ask-Guy Dance, and Gladio has been turning down invitations left and right. Maybe he should just ask Luna, his best friend, to ask him so the other girls would go away. Right?





	Dance With Me

**Author's Note:**

> This is my entry for Gladio Rarepair Week 2019. The prompt that sparked this idea was "fake dating" but I don't even know if this fits that bill anymore, so I'm posting it on free day. Haha. ^^;
> 
> Also, I don't know how popular these dances are and how they usually work, when they're held, etc. It's just there for the plot. ^^;
> 
> This is un-beta'd so you'll probably find some mistakes, but I hope you enjoy reading, anyway! <3

“What’s wrong with him?”

Noctis, who’s last to arrive at their lunch table, jerks his head toward a morose-looking Gladio picking at the leftover fries on his plate.

“He had to say no to another girl,” Prompto answers.

“Aw, man. That’s gotta be tough,” Noctis says with a frown. “Why don’t you just put a note on your locker, though? Or, like, post it in Eosbook that you aren’t going.”

“I dunno,” Gladio shrugs, eyes still on his uneaten food. “Won’t that make me look like an asshole who thinks he’s too cool to attend the dance?”

He’s been turning down invitations to the Crown City High School Girl-Ask-Guy Dance for a week now. Every day, without fail, he would find a note in his locker or get approached in the corridors or the gym and be asked to go. And every day, without fail, he’d declined each one. Rather than discourage the girls, however, his refusal to accept has only made him an even more desirable date. Especially now that the dance is only four days away.

“You’re welcome to join us, you know. A date isn’t really a requirement to come and enjoy the dance,” Ignis says reasonably. Aranea Highwind had asked Ignis to accompany her about a week ago. The entire school couldn’t figure out what’s more surprising: that Aranea invited _Ignis_ , that Ignis _actually_ accepted, or that either of them wanted to attend in the first place.

“Yeah, dude, it would totally be fun!” Prompto nods enthusiastically. He’d been asked by quite a few girls himself, but it was his long-time crush -- Cindy Aurum -- that he’d be going with. He’s still over the moon that Cindy had actually asked him.

“Why don’t you ask Luna?” Noctis suggests. “The other girls would stop hounding you if you’re ‘taken’ right?” He curls his fingers in air quotes even as he gives Gladio a “you should know this” look.

“Noct!” Prompto complains. “The point is that the girls should be asking! You can’t ask a girl to ask you.”

“Why not? I mean, it’s pretty much just a formality these days. I’m not a girl but I asked Nyx to be my date and he said yes.” Noctis shrugs, completely nonchalant. “And it’d be better to go with a friend anyway.”

“But Luna likes --” Prompto begins, but Ignis cuts him off with a quick, sharp glance. Prompto puffs up his cheeks in frustration, properly chastised, and doesn’t say anything more.

Gladio raises his eyebrows at the exchange. “Yeah, well. I’m not really sure if she already asked someone,” he says to fill the sudden silence.

“Ask her, then,” Noctis says simply.

Gladio turns his gaze toward the other end of the cafeteria, where Luna, Crowe, Aranea, and few of their other friends are chatting over their lunch. “Maybe. We’ll see,” he says. Then he smiles because he sees Luna trying to hold in a laugh, perhaps at a joke from Crowe. Her shoulders are shaking, face pink in her effort. Gladio gives her about three seconds before she cracks, which she does. Her laughter crinkles her eyes, and he could imagine how she sounds -- high and clear, like a bell. It makes him smile even more.

When he shifts his attention back to his friends, he catches Ignis studying him closely with an unfathomable expression. Gladio chalks it up to his late decision. Ignis would definitely consider it ungentlemanly to give a girl only four days to prepare for one of the most anticipated events of the year.  


* * *

  
[Gladio, 2:48 PM] hey lu. want 2 go 2 blizzara l8r? my treat.

[Luna, 2:50 PM] You shouldn’t be texting while in class.

[Gladio, 2:51 PM] look whos talking.  
[Gladio, 2:52 PM] nd its only a few mins b4 final bell.  
[Gladio, 2:52 PM] please? i’ll get you that fancy tenebraean gelato you like.

[Luna, 2:54 PM] Wow. It must be something big if you’re using whole words and punctuations.

[Gladio, 2:55 PM] … pretty please?

[Luna, 2:57 PM] Ok, now you owe me more than a gelato.  
[Luna, 2:58 PM] Mr. Leonis caught me. :(

[Gladio, 2:59 PM] aw, im sorry lu.  
[Gladio, 3:00 PM] ill make it up 2 u.  


* * *

  
Gladio gets Luna two scoops of fancy gelato. He places the dish on their table with a flourish and kneels beside Luna to hand her a spoon. “Please accept my peace offering. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me for making you text while in class,” he says, looking up at her through his lashes.

Luna takes the spoon and thunks the handle on his forehead with a little laugh. “You’re an idiot,” she says. “You’re lucky Mr. Leonis likes me and let it slide this time.”

“Everybody likes you, Luna,” Gladio declares as he takes his seat.

“Hmm,” Luna hums around the spoon, looking contemplative. “Not everybody.”

“Are you kidding? Name me one person who doesn’t and I’ll punch some sense into ‘em!”

Luna gazes at him with her blue, blue eyes and sighs. “It doesn’t matter.” She takes another spoonful of gelato. “Anyway, what’s going on? You seemed so serious with all those properly spelled words.”

“Ah, that.” Gladio runs a hand through his hair, suddenly self-conscious. “It can wait. Let’s just um… enjoy the gelato before I tell you about it.”

“Gladiolus Amicitia,” Luna says sternly. “Out with it.”

He caves under the weight of her stare. “Well… I was just wondering if, you know, you already have a date for Girl-Ask-Guy Dance?” Gladio doesn’t mean for it to come out like a question, but it does and it makes him uncomfortable.

“Really?” She gives him a strange look, like a mix of perplexity and disappointment.

“Well.” Gladio squirms in his seat. “Yeah.”

“You could have just asked, you know,” Luna says, looking down at her ice cream. “You didn’t need to take me out on a… I mean, you didn’t need to bribe me with ‘fancy Tenebraean gelato.’”

“It’s not a bribe, Lu. I just honestly wanted to treat you and talk to you and…” he shrugs. “It’s been a while since we really got to hang out. I don’t even know if you have a date on Friday or if you’re even going. See?”

“Well, since you asked. No, I don’t have a date. I haven’t asked anyone and I don’t think I’m going to go,” Luna tells him.

“What?” That surprises him. “Why?”

Luna shrugs. “I just… I have other things to do. Can you believe I still haven’t done that essay for Miss Yeagre? And there’s a blue --”

“Why don’t we go together?” Gladio says abruptly, cutting into Luna’s ramblings.

“What?” She says, her mouth dropping open in shock.

Gladio feels like he should be offended at her surprise, but her pink-glossed lips draw his eyes down. Then he clears his throat, mentally cursing himself for getting distracted by his _best friend’s_ lips. “Well, you know. I don’t have a date, you don’t have a date. So it’s okay if we go together, right?”

“Don’t you have all those girls who want to go with you, though?” Luna digs back into her gelato half-heartedly.

“Yeah, but… you know. I turned them all down.” He wants to meet Luna’s eyes but she seems so interested in swirling her spoon in the bowl of slowly melting ice cream.

“Why?”

“Why?” Gladio repeats with a laugh. “Well, they’re not…” Then he stops in sudden realization that he honestly doesn’t know why he’s declined all those invitations. “I don’t…”

Luna looks up at him then with sad eyes. “Do you want to go?”

“Uh…” Gladio doesn’t understand the change in her mood and it makes him a little agitated. “Yeah, kinda. But I can also just ditch the whole thing so it’s okay if don’t wanna ask me to --”

“Do you?”

“What?”

“Do you want me to ask you to the dance?” Luna is staring at him now with intense focus.

He squirms in his seat again. “Uh, yeah. Sure. But it’s okay if you --”

“Why? Why do you want me to ask you?”

“Lu, what’s going on with you? It’s totally fine if you don’t --”

Again, Luna interrupts him. “Gladio, please. Just tell me.”

His words come out in a rush. “It was Noct’s idea. I was just… It’s really bumming me out, saying no to those girls. So he said maybe I could just go with you, you know, to make them stop. And I thought, why not? You’re my friend and I --”

“Right. Of course.”

Luna says the words like she’s accepting some terrible truth. It makes Gladio worry. “Lu?”

“Come here.” She pats the space beside her on the bench, on her side of their booth. “Sit beside me.”

“What? Why?” he asks, but he does do anyway.

Luna pulls out her phone from her bag, swipes a few times, and hands it over to Gladio. “Here. Your arms are longer.” Then she sidles up close, putting her chin on Gladio’s shoulder.

“Lu?” he says again, in confusion and worry. “What are we doing?”

“We’re taking a selfie. And I’m going to upload it on Eosbook,” she explains. “So you can drive away your admirers for a bit.”

“Oh. Uh, yeah. Okay.”

“Smile.”

**********

Luna posts their selfie later that night, with the caption “Look who’s coming with me to the Girl-Ask-Guy Dance this Friday! <3”

In the photo, Luna is smiling demurely. Gladio, on the other hand, is sporting an awkward “can’t believe it” grin. It looks quite nice, truly and objectively, but it makes his stomach churn uncomfortably. 

He gets a series of texts and DMs, as the post racks up likes and comments from their friends.

[Noctis, 9:28 PM] nice. u actually did it.  
[Noctis, 9:28 PM] c ya at the dance! ;)

[Prompto, 9:30 PM] awwwww that photo looks so cute!!!  
[Prompto, 9:31 PM] we should all hang out!

[Iris, 9:33 PM] WHAT IS THIS DEVELOPMENT? SINCE WHEN? AND WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?????

[Ignis, 9:46 PM] [deleted a message]  
[Ignis, 9:47 PM] [deleted a message]  
[Ignis, 9:50 PM] Aranea says to tell Luna to let her know when she’s going dress shopping.

It’s Luna he wants to hear from, though. She’s barely said a word to him after they’d taken the photo, so it’s her name that he taps on his phone now. Just checking up on a friend, he tells himself.

[Gladio, 9:50 PM] hi lu. just wanted 2 say thanks again.  
[Gladio, 9:50 PM] 4 doin this.  
[Gladio, 9:51 PM] bt i hav a feeling that i did smthn wrong.  
[Gladio, 9:55 PM] is there? pls tell me.  
[Gladio, 9:59 PM] lu? pls talk 2 me.  
[Gladio, 10:08 PM] shd i pick u up 2mrw?

[Luna, 10:10 PM] Don’t thank me yet. We still don’t know if it worked.  
[Luna, 10:11 PM] And yes, please pick me up. It would look better. More convincing.

[Gladio, 10:11 PM] u sound mad. :(

[Luna, 10:12 PM] Texts don’t have audio, Gladio. How can I sound mad?

[Gladio, 10:12 PM] i cn feel it. :(((

[Luna, 10:39 PM] I’m just tired. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?

[Gladio, 10:40 PM] lu, r we ok?  


* * *

  
They’re not okay.

Gladio picks Luna up at their house the next morning with a little time to spare. He thinks maybe he could use the few minutes to talk, but he loses his nerve when Luna gives him a soft “Good morning,” and nothing more.

At school, they are greeted with sighs and smiles and the occasional catcall. Luna takes it in stride, responding with shy smiles and little waves. He, on the other hand, is completely lost. _It’s just a dance,_ he wants to say. _And we’re good friends._ He keeps his expression neutral, nodding or raising a hand at times, but otherwise he just stays silent.

He heads straight to fetch Luna from her class, wanting to talk. A few girls give him lingering glances, but scurry away when they see Luna approach.

“So,” they say at the same time.

Gladio smiles nervously. “Go ahead.”

She motions for them to walk, and Gladio falls into step slightly behind. “I was thinking maybe we should sit together today to keep up the image. It doesn't matter where but --”

Her voice fades away into a distant echo, because he finds himself mesmerized by the wispy curls of hair on her nape that didn’t quite make it into her ponytail. The strands are a bit darker, having less exposure to the sun, and they stand out against her pale skin like --

“Gladio!”

“What?” He wrenches his attention back to the moment, which takes quite a bit of effort.

“I said, where do you think we should sit for lunch? With your friends or --”

“Wherever you want, Lu.”

Luna sighs at him in exasperation. “Gladio.”

“As long as we’re together, I’m good,” he says. “I promise.”

Luna chooses a table near the cafeteria doors, where they’re in full view of everyone coming and going, and Gladio could almost feel the weight of the hundreds of eyes on them. For a few seconds, he casts a glance toward his friends. Noctis looks curious, Prompto slightly worried. Ignis’s face is unreadable, but he thinks he sees a hint of warning. Then he looks at Luna again, who gives him a tight smile. 

They eat their lunch in complete silence.

**********

That afternoon, Gladio picks Luna up from her last class and they walk together back to his truck.

“How was it?” Luna asks him.

“How was what?”

“Your day,” she shrugs. She gets in and clicks the seatbelt in place. “Did someone still ask you to go to the dance?”

“Oh. Livia wanted to know if it’s true that I’m going with you and that if it it’s not, I could go with her,” Gladio says. “And I found an anonymous note in my locker saying I can still back out.”

“I guess we still need to be a bit more convincing,” Luna says.

She gazes out of the window and doesn’t speak again until they’re at the front of her house. Then she says “Same time tomorrow?” She doesn’t wait for a reply before unlocking the seatbelt and hopping out.

Gladio grips the steering wheel a bit too tightly and snarls in his frustration. 

They’re not okay.  


* * *

  
The same thing happens for the next two days. They drive, walk, and eat with as few words as possible. Gladio could barely call what they’re doing interaction. It’s as if Luna isn’t really there with him and it makes him _ache_. The tension is thick between them, and how and why people aren’t calling them out on it yet feels ridiculous and unbelievable to him.

His singular focus on Luna and their… friendship ( _Is it even the right word anymore?_ he thinks.) completely takes over his mind that he doesn't notice that the invitations have stopped coming.

**********

The night before the dance, Gladio finally caves and asks for help.

“Mooglet,” he calls as he knocks on Iris’s bedroom door. “I need to talk to you.”

“It’s open,” Iris calls back.

“Hey,” he says. He closes the door behind him, and he immediately heads to the bed where Iris has several books open. Gladio scrambles around for the bookmarks, slots them on the right pages, then snaps each book closed. He picks up the books and places them on her desk, then goes back to the bed and finally sits down.

Iris raises her eyebrows. “You’re always getting on my case for doing my homework at the last minute so this must be pretty important.” She scoots back to the head of the bed, fluffs up her pillows, and settles in. “Spill.”

He does. He tells Iris everything. From the invitations to Noct’s idea. From the gelato ‘date’ to the now infamous selfie. From the morning after that photo to the quiet walks and lunches, and Ignis’s strange looks and Prompto’s tempered enthusiasm.

He tells her about missing Luna, even though she’s right there beside him. How he wants her talk to him again, just like before when this whole thing -- whatever this is -- between them isn’t a thing yet. How he wants to just go back and not say anything to Luna at all if it meant he’d have her, the real her, back.

By the time he’s done, his throat is aching and his eyes are stinging with tears.

“Oh, Gladdy,” Iris sighs. She goes to him and holds his face between her hands. “You’re such an idiot.”

“I know, Mooglet,” he says mournfully. “So what do I do?”

Iris settles back on her pillows and tells him in a solemn voice, “I’m only going to say this once, and this is very, very important, so listen carefully, okay?”

Gladio just looks at her with desperate eyes.

“You love Luna. You’ve been in love with her for a while now.”

It takes a few seconds for the words to register.

“What?” Gladio gasps at last. The truth hits him like a blast of cold air, making him dizzy and breathless but also wide awake and frantic. He doesn’t know what to do about this information, but he know, he _knows_ that it’s wholly, inescapably true. “Iris, I… wha -- I mean…” he trails off helplessly.

“And this is just as important: Luna loves you, too.”

“ _What?_ ”

Iris actually growls at him. “Gods, you’re such an idiot. You two are idiots. Super smart but also huge idiots, Six help me.”

“Iris, that’s not…”

“Talk to her, okay. Talk to each other and sort it out,” Iris tells him. “And when you do, make me a bridesmaid at your wedding okay?”

“Iris!”

“Now go away,” she pushes at his shoulder. “I have homework to do.”  


* * *

  
[Gladio, 10:20 PM] lu, r u still up?  
[Gladio, 10:20 PM] cn we talk?  
[Gladio, 10:21 PM] i hv somethin 2 tell u.  
[Gladio, 10:22 PM] it’s important.  
[Gladio, 10:23 PM] please, lu.  
[Gladio, 10:25 PM] luna, please.

[10:25 PM] [Luna missed a call from you.]  
[10:30 PM] [Luna missed a call from you.]  
[10:38 PM] [Luna missed a call from you.]  
[10:52 PM] [Luna missed a call from you.]

[Gladio, 11:01 PM] will i see you tomorrow, lu?  
[Gladio, 11:02 PM] i’ll pick you up, okay?  


* * *

  
Gladio drives up to Luna’s house bright and early the next morning. He’s determined to finally talk to her -- properly and honestly, without fear and uncertainty clouding his judgment. Unlike his usual signal of three quick beeps of the horn, he actually turns off the engine and gets out of his truck.

He girds himself with a huge, deep breath as he walks up the path toward the Nox Fleurets’ front door. Before he gets there, however, it swings open and reveals an ill-tempered Ravus.

“Uh, hey. Good morning, Ravus. Is Luna --”

“She took the bus today,” Ravus tells him.

“Oh,” Gladio responds, reeling at the obvious hostility emanating from Luna’s brother. “Right, okay then. I’ll just --”

Ravus gives him a contemptuous once-over with blue-and-purple eyes, then slams the door.

**********

When he gets to the school, he drives himself to a frenzy trying to get an opportunity to talk to her. She always seems to be occupied, often with something he couldn’t squirrel her away from. A consultation with Miss Yeagre, a tutoring session with little Talcott Hester, a meeting with the guidance counselor.

When the final bell rings, he all but kicks his seat in his rush to get to her. He doesn’t get very far.

“Mr. Amicitia. A moment of your time, please?”

Gladio barely contains his groan of disappointment. “Yes, Mr. Leonis?”

“The paper you handed in yesterday about the First War of the Astrals is not up to your usual standards.” He holds up what appears to be Gladio’s submission, a large red B- encircled on the top right corner.

“Yes, sir, about that --”

“Is something wrong? You’ve never had any trouble with any of my required essays before. Especially not about mythology,” his teacher notes with concern.

Gladio’s practically bouncing on his feet, trying to reel in the urge to sprint away. “Yes, sir. I mean no, sir. There’s no problem.”

“So what happened?”

“Look, Mr. Leonis. I know this isn’t like me at all. But I promise, everything’s fine. Or it will be once you let me go so I can make things right.”

“Mr. Amicitia --”

“Sir, I promise to submit a new paper in place of this one on our next meeting. I promise,” he puts heavy emphasis on the word. “I just really have to go.”

Mr. Leonis sighs as long-suffering sigh. “Your paper should be nothing short of excellent, do you understand?”

“Yes, sir. I promise. Thank you, sir.”

He runs out of the classroom so quickly, he doesn’t notice Prompto and Noctis walking by.

“Whoa there, big guy, slow down!” Prompto calls him.

“Can’t, Prom. Gotta go talk to Lu!” he shouts back not bothering to look back.

He covers the distance to Luna’s last-period classroom on the second floor in half the time, and mentally thanks Coach Elshett for pestering him about cardio workouts. “Luna, can we talk?” he says, before he can even peek around the open door.

“Gladio?”

It isn’t Luna.

“Hey, Crowe. Have you seen Lu? I gotta talk to her.” He can’t help the desperation in his voice.

“Uh, yeah. She left a while ago. She says she’s going to get her nails done for the dance tonight.”

“D’you know where?”

“No, not really. Why don’t you just --”

“Thanks, Crowe!”

He rushes back down the stairs and promptly knocks into Noctis as he leaps down the final three steps.

“Ow, man. What the heck?”

“Sorry, Noct. I gotta --”

“Talk to Luna, yeah.” Prompto says. He grips Gladio’s wrist though, forcing him to stop. “Why are you in such a hurry, though? You’re going to see each other later, right?”

“And you look like you aren’t ready for any kind of talking, dude,” Noctis pipes up as he pats down the seat of his pants. “You seem, like, a little crazed right now. You gotta calm down first.”

“No, I gotta find her now and talk to her.” He insists, pulling his wrist from Prompto’s grasp.

“You’re going to see her later at the dance, Gladio. You can talk to her then, right?”

Maybe it’s Prompto's earnestness or maybe Noctis’s open curiosity. Whatever it is, it triggers a wave of sadness to come crashing over him and instantly, effectively douse his earlier determination.

He sighs, his shoulders slumping as he lets go of his frantic energy all at once. “I don’t think we’re going after all, Prom.”  


* * *

  
“What are you still doing here?”

Iris barges into his room without preamble. She pokes his thigh hard, then pushes his legs out of the way so she can perch on his bed. “Well?” she demands.

Gladio spares her a glance. “I’m not going. Luna doesn’t want to see me or talk to me.”

“And you know this because?”

“Look,” Gladio grumps at his sister, which is a very rare occurrence. “I tried everything I could to get a hold of her today, but I couldn’t. Texts, calls, tracking her down during my breaks. It’s like she’s scheduled her entire day to avoid me.”

Iris just crosses her arms across her chest, supremely unimpressed.

“I tried, Iris. I really did. I even risked getting skewered by Ravus’s fencing sword when I dropped by this afternoon.” Gladio knows Ravus wouldn’t have lied about Luna not being at home. Luna’s brother isn’t a big fan of avoiding conversations and confrontations, and had even forced the two of them to talk when they’d had a huge misunderstanding a few months back.

Iris pouts at him. “I’m really going to hate you forever if you ruin it with Luna.”

“I’ll try again tomorrow, Mooglet. Maybe I just need to wait a bit and give her some space.”

“But tomorrow might be too late!” Iris wails. “If she’s not going to the dance, and if she's not at home, then she must be somewhere… somewhere she could have some space, like you said. Like, like…”

Gladio sits up so suddenly that the bed bounces, and Iris along with it. “Gods, Iris, you’re a genius!” He scrambles for his phone, Moogles something (and curses his large, clumsy fingers), and rushes to the window. “Yes!” He hisses and fist-pumps after a quick glance outside.

“Gladdy?”

He lifts his sister up and off his bed, kissing her forehead as he does. Then he frogmarches her out. “Wish me luck, Mooglet,” he says.

**********

At exactly 9:02 PM, Gladio walks through the observatory doors of The Kings of Yore Library and Museum.

“Hi, Lu.”

The dappled silvery light of the blue moon outlines Luna’s form with a faint glow, and it makes Gladio think of gods and goddesses who come down from the Astral Plane and bless humans with their presence.

She turns to face him, slowly, gracefully. “Hello, Gladio.”

“Mind if I join you?”

“No,” she whispers, and in the quiet of the library, Gladio could hear the words as clearly as if she had sighed them into his ears. “I don’t mind.”

He steps up to stand beside her. “Here. These are for you.” In his hand is a bouquet of sylleblossoms and white gladioli that he’d rush-ordered from Gentiana’s, shouting into his phone as he’d gotten dressed.

“Thank you,” Luna tells him as she accepts the flowers. “They’re lovely.”

For a while they just stare out the huge glass windows. At the stars, the occasional wispy clouds drifting across the inky sky, the blue moon. 

They break the solemn silence as one.

“How did you find me?”

“I’ve missed you so damn much, Lu.”

Luna hugs the bouquet tighter to her chest. “How did you find me, Gladio?”

He heaves a huge sigh before answering. “I thought of maybe letting up a bit on my efforts to try and talk to you. Figured you might’ve been sick of me, y’know. And I’d been ready to call it a day. Maybe sulk a bit while I wait for tomorrow, so I could have a fresh start.”

Luna hums a wordless signal for him to continue.

“But then Iris said tomorrow might be too late if I wait and, well, I think I’ve waited long enough.” He comes a little closer to her, near enough to touch but not quite closing the gap yet. “Don’t you? 

“That still doesn’t explain how you found me.”

At last, Luna looks at him straight in the eyes and Gladio realizes why blue is his favorite color.

“You’ve been talking about this for days.” He gestures at the blue moon and Luna smiles faintly. “About wanting to go here to see it because they have the best view. And I nearly forgot about it because I’m stupid and selfish but… here I am.”

“Here you are,” she says. “Why?”

He finally crosses the small but infinitely wide distance between them. “Because I love you, Luna,” he says, gently cupping her face in his hands.. “I’ve loved you for quite a while now, but I didn’t realize because… because you’ve been my constant. You’re always there and I thought you’d always be there and I --”

“I’ll always be here, Gladio.” Luna blinks back her tears. “I’m sorry for acting the way I did these past few days. I’ve just been so confused about a lot of things. About you and me, and I just…. Will you forgive me?”

Gladio laughs and presses his forehead against hers. “There’s nothing to forgive, Lu. I understand. If anything, it should be me who’s got to apologize for being a huge and insensitive idiot.”

“Apology accepted,” she says, and the light of her smile drowns out the moon and the stars.

“Gods, I’ve missed you so fucking much.” He crushes Luna in a fierce embrace. “Let’s not fight like that again.”

“I second that,” Luna murmurs into his chest.

“Oh hey.” Gladio pushes her back slightly so he can look at her with twinkling eyes. “Iris said something to me about you and I wanna know if it’s true.”

“She’s a smart girl, so whatever it is, it’s probably correct.”

“She says you love me, too.”

Luna smiles that glowing smile at him again, and dear Astrals, it’s intoxicating. “Yes. It’s very much true.”

“So,” Gladio grins. It makes him feel ecstatic to smile again, this big and this genuine, after a few days of pretending that things are fine. “May I kiss you?”

**********

Later that night, Luna posts a photo on Eosbook.

“Look who ditched the Girl-Ask-Guy Dance with me! <3”

In it, Gladio’s kissing her cheek with his eyes closed and she’s holding the bouquet half in front of her face to hide her smile that her sparkling eyes couldn’t.

**Author's Note:**

> Holler at me on
> 
> Tumblr: @raidelle  
> Discord: @raidelle#3573


End file.
